


Completion

by Penned



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, M/M, Pre-Threesome, Threesome (Implied), Unrequited Love, stuckony - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-17
Updated: 2016-07-17
Packaged: 2018-07-24 14:38:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7512079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penned/pseuds/Penned
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where soulmates exist, Steve and Bucky always knew that they were missing the last piece to their bond. Too bad no one told Tony. </p><p>This is not a happy fic. Steve-centic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Completion

**Author's Note:**

> I like soulmate fics, especially when everyone lives happily ever after. This is not that kind of fic. Also, I noticed that the majority of Stuckony fics focus on Tony's insecurities which, as a Tony fan, I totally understand even though it breaks my heart. 
> 
> This story is a blend of those two tropes, but of course, with my kind of tone. If you don't like unhappy endings, don't read this (or anything else I write, lbr).

It’s rare but welcomed, to have two names – two soulmates, two equals who were meant for you. There were so many variations; some people never felt the itch of a name on their wrist, some people had two, and some had one which later faded as death strained the ties between the souls.

_(They never quite separated, of course. Soul bonds were an eternal connection, a clear mark on the skin to match the invisible one on the heart.)_

###

Steve had two names – two on one wrist.

In his sick bed as a child, he would stare at the names and pray with all the force his weakened heart could muster that he lived long enough to meet both of them. It was a childish thing to place all his hopes and dreams on those names but he didn’t care. He would be loved, _so loved_ , by two people and they would love him despite his frail body and gasping lungs. Two names meant twice the love to receive, and twice the love to give.

He promised each day that his mother forced him to stay indoors because he’d had another asthma attack that as soon as he was able to he would travel the world to find both of his soulmates. He would do _anything_ for them, he just knew.

Steve met Bucky only a few years later and to his relief and delight, they both shared the last name on their wrist. Their lost love, the missing piece of their own private puzzle – he was out there somewhere and if Steve could find Bucky, then they both would find Tony.

Whoever, wherever he was.

###

He nearly collapsed in relief after he came out of the Vita-Ray chamber to find the names still there. The night before Project Rebirth, he confessed to Dr. Erskine how scared he was. Steve was so terrified that the serum would cleanse the names from his skin. He almost backed out of the project though the good doctor assured him that the bond would only be strengthened by the serum. After all, it enhanced the most prominent qualities of a subject, and what was more prominent a feature than soulmates?

_(He started wearing a band and ‘stickovers’ on his wrist – a cautionary act that he disguised as piety. Howard seemed nice enough but Steve didn’t quite trust the scientists around not to use his names against him. Stark was a common enough name after all and Howard had no other relations but still… Erskine understood and went along with the lie, bless the man.)_

Steve and Bucky never found Tony during the war.

The only consolation they had was that his name remained strong and brilliant against their wrists. He wasn't dead. He was still _theirs._

_(There were nights, when everyone else was asleep, when Steve and Bucky whispered to each other about who Tony could be, what he could be like, what he would look like. Bucky always talked about him with lust and desire but Steve knew the truth. Tony was their symbol of hope, of a shared future that would be worth surviving the war for. He would be their everything and they would his.)_

Then Bucky fell and his name faded and Steve crashed the plane and-

And then.

###

Tony Stark was flash and glitz, plastic and gold, sly, conniving and brilliant. Steve was drawn to him as well as repelled at first, and he kept the bands over his names firmly on.

He was still hurting, still too raw to really feel the joy of finding his other soulmate, and besides Tony kept a band on his wrist too.

_(Steve figured they had time. He could be patient. Tony was skittish and he… Bucky was gone and the ache was still too real for him to do anything else but watch Tony from a distance.)_

“Who’s the lucky soul?” Clint had asked Tony once, after a seemingly endless number of drinks. It had been months since the battle of New York, and weeks since the team had come to live in the tower. “Or souls, since you know, super thick band and all.”

Clint had mimicked handcuffs and wiggled his eyebrows and Tony had smirked at him, seemingly unbothered by Steve’s sudden focused stare.

“I’m free and clear, birdy. I just like the aesthetic.”

It hurt. Steve was not too proud to admit that his chest had constricted at Tony’s flippant brush off. He had lied so smoothly and so convincingly that Steve knew he would have taken the other man at his word, had not Tony’s name been on his own wrist.

As the weeks passed, Steve studied Tony and felt the draw, that magical _pull_ strengthen each day. Tony was a miracle, the personification of the twenty-first century with its drive for _faster, better, stronger_ , but with depths of kindness and goodness that made him ashamed of their first words shared during Loki’s attack.

He couldn’t help admire Tony – who not only housed the Avengers without a second thought, but who created and built the future with his own two hands in his lab. For all his feigned complaints and childish whining, Tony worked with Pepper to move Stark Industries beyond the reach of competitors, made sure the R&D departments ran smoothly, and made time to fight, _truly fight_ , against anyone that sought to do harm against the innocent.

Tony was self-sufficient and strong. The most human out of them all and yet his most powerful outside of the suit.

It was so easy to fall in love with him.

Tony never acted as if he needed anyone, and for that Steve’s heart ached for him.

He knew what Howard had been like as a father. They’d had enough conversations in the lab in the middle of the night, when neither of them could find sleep, to know each other better now.

(Steve had gritted his teeth, listening to the hurt underneath Tony’s smooth voice as he spoke about Howard and his search for Captain America. It had never been about him, Steve Rogers. Howard had never really seen _him_ , after all. Just his ‘creation.’)

A boy like Tony, who’d been pushed aside… Of course he’d be self-sufficient. Of course he’d be strong. He had to become so at such a young age, when he should have been loved and cherished. Of course he would learn how to both fight and seduce the world, to walk his own solitary path with the faded names of what he’d been taught were dead men on his wrist.  Tony would have believed he was alone and so he would have learned how to fight for himself because he would believe there was no one else to fight for him.

Steve wanted to tell Tony each day – he wasn’t alone anymore. He didn’t have to walk his path alone anymore because Steve was here, even if Bucky wasn’t.

Tony was skittish though. He still wanted to hide behind his band.

And so Steve waited.

###

When Bucky was found and taken in, Steve broke down and wept. Both the names were dark now, no longer mismatched gray and black.

_Finally._

They were complete.

###

Bucky’s recovery was slow and painful.

Tony fixed Bucky’s arm, built a therapeutic device to help with his traumatic memories, and gave Steve all the resources he needed to make sure their soulmate was taken care of.

If there was any doubt about Tony’s inherent goodness, it was the fact that he never once lashed out at Bucky for his parents’ deaths. He would have been within his rights but he only shook his head each time Steve tried to talk to him about it all, or Bucky tried to apologize.  

Some hurts, Steve knew, were better left private.

They thanked him, over and over, despite Tony’s protests and though they never said a word about it, it was obvious that Tony was relieved to have Bucky there too.

It showed every time he spoke to him, the kind yet shameless teasing and banter he threw at Bucky who seemed bewildered and then amused by it all. Bucky’s memories were spotty at best, but he knew who Tony was and most importantly, _what_ he was. After all, Bucky’s wrist – flesh and bone bore his names. Hydra had tried to burn them off and the scarring was thick and ugly, but through the mottled skin, Steve could see the familiar lines and curves and for the first time in a long time, he felt settled, like he was some place, some  _time_ he belonged again.

_(“He’s ours?” Bucky had asked Steve, haltingly. Steve kissed him gently and smiled, nodding. He said, “All ours. We’re all here now so we can take our time, Buck. Take your time.”)_

Bucky’s recovery was slow and painful.

But he _was_ recovering.

###

One night, Steve found them on the couch on the shared floor, watching a movie.

Or at least, Bucky was still watching. Tony had fallen asleep at some point, with his head on a pillow and his feet on Bucky’s lap.

He smiled at them both, the two pieces of his heart and Bucky smiled back. In the flickering light of the screen, Tony’s face was peaceful and smooth.

“We would have picked him, even if his name wasn’t there,” Bucky said softly. It was a statement, not a question and Steve nodded without hesitation. Tony was theirs, of that there was no doubt but even if fate hadn’t given them the privilege of being connected to the man, he knew they would have reached out to him nonetheless.

“You think he’s ever gonna say anything?” Bucky asked. His wide blue eyes were more hopeful than curious but Steve couldn’t lie to him.

He shook his head. “He grew up alone, Bucky. Probably never thought he’d meet us. Probably thought he’d always be alone. Incomplete. We have to give him time to get used to us now.”

Impatience shone on Bucky’s face and Steve grinned. He would have his hands full with the two of them, once they were all together. Between Tony’s manic energy and Bucky’s intolerance for waiting, Steve would have to learn to curb his own impulsiveness.

It was okay – he would be willing to do anything for his men.

He walked into the room and sat on the couch near Tony’s head. Gentle, so as not to wake him, Steve combed his fingers through the man's thick brown hair and Bucky leaned back against the couch with a sigh.

Tony slept on peacefully, between his two soulmates.

They were almost there.

###

It all came to a head one day, after Tony left them for nearly a month without explanation or even a simple note. When he came back to the tower, Steve and Bucky both followed him down to his lab and the calm discussion he meant to have with Tony escalated into an argument.

“Look, I don’t have to tell you where I’m going, Cap,” Tony said, undoing the tie at his neck and giving him a look of pure contempt. It was clear he was tired from a long flight, but his dark eyes were bright and angry. “This isn’t the field, you don’t make the shots. Rhodey was here if you needed cover so you don’t get any say over my life and you sure as hell don’t control me, so just back off.”

“This isn't about air cover! I’m not saying I control you but you just _left_ us,” Steve said angrily. “You can’t do that – you can’t just leave us without-”

“I can do whatever the fuck I want, the last time I checked, because I’m a grown ass man who doesn’t need permission.” Tony glared at him as he flung his suit jacket onto a chair. “And I certainly can leave for however the hell long I want without telling every single person in this tower. For the record, Captain? I was helping Pep close out a deal in Japan we’ve been working on for years, but I am genuinely baffled as to why you think you’d even be privy to that information.”

 _Because you’re our soulmate!_ Steve wanted to yell at him, but the thick band around his wrist kept him in check. Tony was testing his boundaries. Of course he wanted to assert his freedom now that his soulmates were alive but leaving without telling them had sent them both in a panic.

He had to learn from _Bruce_ of all people that Tony had left and JARVIS wouldn’t disclose the exact location, citing no emergencies.

Steve thought he’d had every right to be angry but… he didn’t want to fight. Not when they could have been welcoming Tony home and showing him how much he’d been missed.

He forced himself to take a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“We need you with us, Tony,” Bucky said quietly. Steve looked at him in surprise but Bucky kept his focus all on Tony as he stepped forward. “It’s… it’s hard when you’re gone. We miss you.”

Tony looked surprised and confused, but he said nothing as Bucky reached out for him, taking his banded wrist. “You just left and… We’ve been trying to be patient but it was hard, when you just left us like that.”

Tony stared at him with wide eyes and then up at Steve, as if for confirmation. “Patient. For what? I think I’m missing something here. Are we even having the same conversation anymore because I suddenly feel like I just took a right turn and you both are on the left, and we all know how Rogers drives so he’s probably–”

“Tony, it’s okay. It’s okay, sweetheart,” Steve said, cutting him off before he could start rambling. His heart was pounding but he wanted to grin suddenly, because _God,_ they were going to do this now. Bucky wouldn’t want to wait anymore and…

…they would be complete.

_Finally._

Tony’s eyes grew wider and he looked at Bucky, who was still holding his hand. He jerked backwards, taking a few steps away and shook his head. “Okay, I think there’s been a misunderstanding here, guys. You… you both are–”

“You don’t have to be alone anymore,” Bucky said gently. Steve watched as Bucky’s metal hand removed the band around his flesh and blood wrist and raised his arm so Tony could see.

_Steven Grant Rogers._

_Anthony Edward Stark._

“We wanted to give you time to get to know us. Get used to us, doll, but this… this can’t wait anymore.”

With shaking hands, Steve undid the band at his own wrist and raised it, giving Tony a crooked smile through the tears stinging his eyes. “I’m sorry it took us so long, Tony. I’m sorry you had to wait so long for us. What can I say? We were always late, even though the Army tried to stomp it out of us.”  

Tony’s face was pale and shocked and he shook his head. “There’s been a mistake. You’re… Neither of you are–”

“Stop trying to lie to us,” Bucky said, frustrated. He took a step forward and then stopped when Tony darted away. “I know you’re angry and scared. Hell, if I were you, I’d be–”  

“I’m not lying!” Tony insisted, looking back and forth at Steve and Bucky. He yanked his shirt sleeves up, popping the cuffs open and then jerking off the band that covered one wrist. “I’m not yours. I never have been.”

When Tony raised his arms, they all saw a blank expanse of unnamed skin.

 

**_End_ **

 

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know if you see any grammatical mistakes or misspellings. Reviews and comments are always welcomed.


End file.
